Their factory, as profiled by Adam Ellick for today's New York Times. employs a mixture of men and women and specializes in fetish and bondage wear, strictly for export. And many of their employees don't necessarily even know what they're really making.

The brothers have taken extreme measures to conceal a business that in this deeply conservative Muslim country is as risky as it is risqué.

It helps that the dozens of veiled and uneducated female laborers who assemble the handmade items - gag balls, lime-green corsets, thonged spanking skirts - have no idea what the items are used for. Even the owners' wives, and their conservative Muslim mother, have not been informed.

"If our mom knew, she would disown us," said Adnan, seated on a leopard-print fabric covering his desk chair.

In a video that accompanies the article (which you really ought to watch), one male employee explains that a sex swing is really a beach chair; another says that the fetishwear is used as a joke. But designer-turned-sales-executive Aasifa, a 25-year-old woman, knows exactly what she was designing and is now selling, and has favorites.

The Qadeer brothers aren't interested in anything but profit, however.

"We really believe that if you are persistent and hard working, there is an opportunity, in any harsh environment, even in an economically depressed environment like Pakistan," Rizwan said.

A major perk, they say, is attending international fetish shows to see how their products hold up in action.

"I go to Sin City every year," said Rizwan, referring to Las Vegas in a sheepish laugh. It's all business, he said. "Clients know our country and culture, and they don't invite us to participate. We're a little bit shy."

Aw, look, it's globalization, sexual tolerance and an ascent out of poverty all bound up in one neat little (leather) package!

Lacy Threads And Leather Straps Bind A Business [NY Times]

The product of an abusive home, Page fled a bad marriage in her native Tennessee for New York where she fell in with a pair of siblings who ran a pornography ring. Between the years 1949 and 1957, Page was the subject of more than 20,000 pinup photos, many of them dealing with bondage subjects that are today regarded as an important gateway to the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Page's photos developed a following in later years for their unique mixture of risqué subject matter and almost wholesome sexuality.

After becoming a Christian, Page gave up her modeling career. Her later years were marked by depression and mental, illness, but she lived to see herself become a pop-culture icon, a turn of events that baffled her even as it kept her solvent. "I want to be remembered," she said, "as I was when I was young and in my golden times. . . . I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form."

Bettie Page Dies At 85; Pinup Queen Played A Key Role In The Sexual Revolution Of The 1960s And Later Became A Cult Figure [LA Times]

Bettie Page, Queen of Pinups, Dies At 85 [NY Times]

Matilda of Mayfair says: "A good spanking and whipping never did anyone any harm." Jimmy Timminover from Hartlepool writes: "There is nothing better after a hard week, than standing in the bath, and having your wife whip you, with a yard of fresh, raw tripe.
It's exciting, good for the circulation, keeps you fit, and afterwards, you can fry the tripe with a few onions, and a glass of white wine, for supper, perfect."

Unfortunately, not everyone is psyched to discuss domination. "It's clear to me that England is becoming more Satanic in nature every day, and the people who work for the BBC must take some responsibility for that," Dean from Reading declares. And Zax from Amersham sighs: "Frankly, it scares me to know what people will do in the name of recreation. How can physical aggression, bleeding wounds, broken bones, dirt, humiliation, orchestrated and ritualised violence and even deaths have any place in the psyche of any rational adult? Anyway, so much for rugby. And boxing, wrestling, judo and any other competitive contact sport you care to name, all of which are essentially substitutes for sex anyway. BDSM sounds much safer, plus there's at least a chance you'll find your fellow participants sexually attractive, unlike rugby. Er, presumably." Here's a question: Is something still "kinky" if everyone is doing it?

Why do so many of us like kinky sex? [Times]
Britain's Secretive S&M Scene [BBC News]